You might argue that Hitler would have acted differently had Britain surrendered but I find the world Sanson creates believable. It's detailed, sinister and totally compelling. In Dominion the moment is on and Sanson does a superb job of imagining the ripples which would have spread had Churchill not become Prime Minister. The ripples which spread outwards fascinated me. Many years ago I listened to a radio programme which took the premise 'what if?' The outcome of a momentous world event was changed and the outcomes discussed. Pursuing them all is Gunther Hoth, an implacable hunter of men and particularly of Jews. His wife, Sarah has not got over the death of their young son in a domestic accident and she's drawn into a world more terrifying than she could ever have imagined. David is to get him out of the country, but the Germans are interested in Frank too. It seems that he's party to information about the work his brother is doing in the USA and he knows that it could change the balance of world power. He has a secret: his mother was Jewish, but his immediate concern is that an old University friend, Frank Muncaster is in a Birmingham mental hospital. Winston Churchill - aged and possibly infirm - is the head of the Resistance organisation, but he's forced to live his life in hiding and on the run.Īt a personal level David Fitzgerald, Civil Servant in the Dominions Office, is spying for the Resistance. The British people are under a violent, authoritarian rule and British Jews face a grim future. Russia fought on, but it was a war of attrition rather than one which looked to come to a clear conclusion. Churchill had thought that he might be able to run the war from that position but, Halifax, the appeaser, held sway and Britain surrendered to Germany in the aftermath of Dunkirk. It's 1952 and twelve years since Churchill became Minister of War and Halifax took over from Chamberlain as Prime Minister.

Dominion cj sansom review